THE previous day's inspiration failed to span the weekend for Warwickshire as they suffered a resounding 58-run C&G Trophy defeat to Worcestershire at Edgbaston.

THE previous day's inspiration failed to span the weekend for Warwickshire as they suffered a resounding 58-run C&G Trophy defeat to Worcestershire at Edgbaston.

In competitive terms, it didn't matter a jot. Due to the pea-brained format of this season's competition, both sides were out of contention before play began.

But the Bears' joy at their bowlers clinching a thrilling championship win against Durham suffered an immediate aftershock. The batters simply messed up again.

Chasing Worcestershire's imposing 267, the Bears mustered 209 - and that thanks largely to some late-order thrashing in a lost cause. Only one specialist batsman - Jim Troughton with 58 from 73 balls - built an innings.

From 78 for one, five wickets fell for 44 runs in 16 overs.

Warwickshire's theory was that these dead C&G games would be used to iron out glitches in time for the Twenty20. Better keep that iron out.

The lone bright spot for the Bears was an eye-catching first-team debut for Nick James.

The 19-year-old left-arm spinner, brought on with Stephen Moore and Vikram Solanki scoring freely, bowled an excellent line and extracted some turn.

He wasn't flattered by figures of 10-1-23-1 and later added a bracing run-a-ball 30 with the bat.

Worcestershire thoroughly deserved to win. While Moore (80 from 99 balls) and Solanki (60 from 55) were batting together a huge total beckoned but after they fell to Troughton, the innings spluttered. Instead of 300-plus, the Bears were chasing 267.

Still far too many. Nick Knight fell first ball and after Troughton and Neil Carter's flurry, the rest fell in a heap.